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New to forum and hoping to get into riding, need advice

Dr. Doolittle said:
Heidi, here's my two cents worth:

1. Don't buy anything until you've completed the course. You have absolutely no way to predict what your attitude and outlook will be until you finish those couple days of indoctrination.

2. I know you want a Harley but do not shy away from buying a good, used metric or Buell to cut your teeth on. It won't hurt you or your wallet as much if you have an incident on a cheaper, lighter bike.

3. Try to get a feel for the type of riding you'll be doing. Will it just be a commuter bike and weekend cruiser or will you be taking some longer, overnight trips?

4. Once step 3 is complete, rent or demo several models, preferably for several hours to a day. Sitting on a bike in the showroom is no substitute for spending 100+ miles in the saddle out on the road.

5. The Sportster issue - if you like the Sportster then go ahead and get it. However, do NOT get one intending for it to be your starter bike. Even at the low end of the HD price scale they're pretty expensive for a first bike and as has been mentioned, even though it seems counter intuitive, they're actually harder to ride than most of the bigger Harley's with lower centers of gravity.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!
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Doc, your counsel is timely and good! Very profound advice.
 
I guess we will see how good of a friend he is!
Dont know if I would let a newbie rider try my Harley, but he knows me well enough (grew up with each other)!

Not a huge fan of the sportster, nice bike just not hitting all the right spots for me...that is why they make all sorts of models, huh. Different strokes for different folks.
I looked at the Fat Bob, I like that model as well. Looks like it sits abotu 2 inches higher than the Fat Boy Lo and weighs 30 lbs less (dry). Any other huge difference? Will the Fat Bob have a lot more vibration or less?
 
I have had a few 'lady' friend who wanted to learn and I told them take the course and rent a few and see what 'they' like. Remember to please yourself not other bikers. One thing I've done, and alot of people said I was crazy, I've laid by bike on it side. It was off and cooled down and then showed them how to pick them up, very easy to do if you do it right. If they could handle picking it up themself most the time they felt secure in riding them. Never had any trouble with them droping it again and I was with them in case. Now lets see how many people on this forum think I'm crazy LOL.
 
Rmk600 said:
So I have another question, everyone has stated to test drive and rent bikes, I didnt know this was an option. I would be scared to death to dump or scratch a bike that wasn't mine...
I am going to see some friends this weekend and one of them has a fat boy, maybe I will ask him about letting me get some time on his bike, hopefully he trusts me!
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I would be a thousand times more worried about dropping or damaging a friend's bike than a dealers. As Glider said, they carry insurance for demo rides. Make sure you explain your experience level - they'll probably make you ride around the parking lot a bit before letting you out on to the road. If you rent, make sure you purchase enough insurance to give you total coverage and peace of mind while out on the bike.
 
As noted above... take the class before you buy a bike.
A used bike makes better economical sense, than a $15-20k new bike ... in MY opinion.
there are hundreds, if not thousands of owners out there, who bought the bike of their dreams for a first bike... so it's just MY opinion,

The biggest gripe I hear from folks is that they bought bike "A", because they liked how it looked, and then they discovered "bike A" wasn't suited to their actual riding style.

That is the reason, I take the unpopular stance, and recommend novice riders buy a nice used metric. They are low cost to buy, own, insure, and usually can be re-sold easily. The initial hit will be borne by the orginial buyer, depreciation sucks with new metrics, but they stabilize after 2-3 years.

If you "just have to have" that HD, don't overlook the softail heritage deluxe, a sweet easy to ride bike, with good leg room, and a ton of luggage space. Having rain gear, lunch, etc, on hand is a majot plus
 
Rmk600 said:
I guess we will see how good of a friend he is!
Dont know if I would let a newbie rider try my Harley, but he knows me well enough (grew up with each other)!

Not a huge fan of the sportster, nice bike just not hitting all the right spots for me...that is why they make all sorts of models, huh. Different strokes for different folks.
I looked at the Fat Bob, I like that model as well. Looks like it sits abotu 2 inches higher than the Fat Boy Lo and weighs 30 lbs less (dry). Any other huge difference? Will the Fat Bob have a lot more vibration or less?
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You're not going to see a big difference in vibrations between the two bikes. The fat boy is counter balanced and rigid mount engine and the bob is rubber mounted but they still vibrate. The bob will give you a more comfortable ride and the height can be played with with seat mods and possible a shorter shock if that bothers you. Having owned both the softails and dynas, I would recommend the dyna for comfort over the softail but that's JMHO.
 
The Fat Bob is a really fine looking bike IMO. I test rode one a little while back but found the foot controls too far away for my shortish legs (5'7"). I own a Sporty which I love riding and throwing around the twists and bends but when I test rode a Heritage Softtail - well it was like a big comfortable armchair. Very comfortable but not as exhilarating a ride IMO. Everything on the test bike was stock mind you. I think Stage 1 and upwards would make it more fun.

Best advice I think is as some preceding posts have said - test ride everything and buy the bike you like and that likes you. Good luck and welcome to the forum. :D
 
glider said:
You're not going to see a big difference in vibrations between the two bikes. The fat boy is counter balanced and rigid mount engine and the bob is rubber mounted but they still vibrate. The bob will give you a more comfortable ride and the height can be played with with seat mods and possible a shorter shock if that bothers you. Having owned both the softails and dynas, I would recommend the dyna for comfort over the softail but that's JMHO.
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Softail vibrates more than a DYNA.....JMHO :bigsmiley24:
 
Alot of good advice... as for rentals, typical Harley rental has a 2000 dollar damage wavier/deductible that they pin to your visa when you rent. So if you damage it your responsible for the first 2k. I just rented a 2009 FLTR from Danbury HD in CT last week. The rental for 24 hours was 239. As for bikes, my advice would be to find something small light and nimble to "cut your teeth on" as someone coined. If you buy a new fatboy or something else and your into it for 10 grand+ and you dump it... you won't have heart failure when you get the repair bill. Plus you may or maynot have to finance and have to think about collision insurance. When I was younger I always paid cash and never carried collision.... now I still have it... Good Luck!!!! Becareful out there!!!
 
I took a riding course last year and bought 1996 883 sportster as my first bike. I've never touched a bike before that in my life. Inexperienced, I dropped the bike a couple of times. No major damages but learned from mistakes. Now I feel more confident and bought a new 1200C, yet another sporster. Yes, I will probably trade up next year, but I felt it's more important to learn and get experienced with riding first. I like a lot of people's suggeston to try out diff bikes, though.
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